Rafts, baffles and clouds: the three types of acoustic ceiling, and which suits your space.

Shop for something to quiet a ceiling and you meet a wall of words. Raft, baffle, cloud, fin, island, and no two suppliers seem to mean quite the same thing by them. There is no settled vocabulary, so the words are a poor place to start. What actually matters is simpler: how the felt is hung. A felt panel can hang three ways below a ceiling, and the way it hangs decides what it is for, how it meets the sound, and how much work it is to plan and fix.

This guide sets out the three, horizontal, vertical and interconnected, so you can look past the label and choose by the space you have. Once you know which orientation suits your room, the product name sorts itself out.

The three ways felt hangs from a ceiling.

The quickest way to tell the three apart is to look at where the wire attaches. That single detail decides the orientation.

Horizontal, what people call a raft or a cloud.

The felt lies flat, its face to the room, and the wires drop to that broad face. It floats as a low plane a short distance below the structural ceiling.

Horizontal suits a room where ceiling height is the constraint. The shallow profile adds a soft surface without eating head height, so it works where you cannot afford to bring the ceiling down. It reads as a calm floating feature rather than a bold gesture.

It is also the easiest of the three to plan. A horizontal panel comes as a coverage area, a square, a hexagon, a circle, sized like 1200 by 1200, and it hangs on just one or two wires. You work out how many panels fill your ceiling and you are most of the way there.

Horizontal also earns its place at the other extreme. In a tall volume with height to spare, a field of flat rafts hung at one level brings a soft plane down into the room and settles the long reflections a high ceiling leaves ringing, without costing any usable height.

Vertical, what people call a baffle or a fin.

The felt stands on its edge, faces to the walls, and the wires attach along the narrow top profile. Hung in rows, each leaf is a soft fin set across the path the sound travels.

Vertical suits tall or wide open spaces. A run of fins calms a large floor without building a solid visual wall, and in a high room the fins hang down into the volume where the sound is. This is where the Wave Form waves and the oblong rafts live, along with the flowing Drift and Boardwalk blades.

Vertical is the one that takes real planning, and that is why it has its own guide. You choose how many blades, how far apart to space them, how far to drop them, and how to hang them. See the Wave Form and vertical hanging guide for the full method.

Interconnected, what people call a structure, a grid or an island.

Boards are slotted through each other at right angles into one rigid structure, and the wires attach at the joints where the boards cross. It faces several ways at once and reads as a sculptural feature.

Interconnected suits a feature moment, a reception, an atrium, a space where the ceiling is meant to be looked at. It packs the most felt into a given area and catches light across its faces.

Despite the assembly looking complex, it is simple to plan and fix. Like a horizontal raft it comes as a coverage area, and the whole structure typically hangs from four wires, at the joints where the boards cross.

How each meets the sound.

A hard, flat ceiling reflects sound straight back down into the room, and in a space with hard floors and glass that reflected sound builds up and makes speech harder to follow. All three orientations work on the same principle: soft felt hung in the room, with both faces open, takes energy out of those reflections so the room settles.

Where they differ is how they meet the sound. A horizontal raft sits under the ceiling and takes the reflection at the point it forms. A run of vertical fins stands in the way of sound crossing an open floor and softens it as it passes. An interconnected structure packs the most material into one place for the strongest single effect.

The measured evidence, for hung felt with both faces exposed: the 24mm PET felt board is rated NRC 0.65, to EN ISO 354:2003, measured baffle-mounted with both faces exposed and no cavity behind, which is the condition all three orientations are used in. Reaction to fire is Class B-s1,d0 to BS EN 13501-1, so felt can be specified in commercial interiors where a fire class is required.

One honest limit applies to all three. These panels absorb sound within a room. They do not stop sound passing through a wall or between floors. If the problem is a neighbour through a party wall, this is the wrong tool. If the problem is a live, echoey room, it is the right one.

Which is easiest to plan and fix.

This is the part most guides skip, and it is often what decides the job. The three orientations are not equal in how much work they are to size and hang.

Horizontal and interconnected are the easy ones. Both come as a coverage area, so you size them straight against the ceiling you have, and both have few fixing points. A horizontal panel hangs on one or two wires. An interconnected structure hangs on about four, at four of its cross joints.

Vertical is the involved one. It is a set of separate blades, so you decide the blade count, the spacing and the drop yourself. You also decide how to carry the wires, and that choice moves the fixing count more than anything else.

The same 1200 by 1200 patch of ceiling shows what is at stake. As a single horizontal panel it might hang on two wires. As one interconnected structure it hangs on four. As eight vertical blades on individual wires it needs sixteen, two per blade. Put those same eight blades on a suspension channel and the count comes back down to four. None of that makes vertical worse, the fins do a job the flat panel cannot, but it does mean vertical rewards a bit of planning up front.

For the full vertical method, blade count, spacing, drop and the two ways to hang, see the vertical hanging guide.

Which suits which space.

A short way to land on the right orientation:

• A low or standard-height ceiling where you cannot lose height, and you want a calm flat feature: horizontal.
• A wide open floor or a tall volume where you want to soften a large area without a solid wall: vertical.
• A reception, atrium or feature space where the ceiling itself should be the statement: interconnected.

All three come in recycled PET felt, made to order in Britain, in up to 48 colours, so the choice is about the space and the effect, not the material.

Frequently asked questions.

What are the three types of acoustic ceiling panel?

They are the three ways a felt panel can hang below a ceiling. Horizontal, a flat panel lying face down, often called a raft or a cloud. Vertical, a fin hung on its edge in rows, often called a baffle. Interconnected, boards slotted into a rigid structure, often called a grid or an island.

Is a ceiling raft the same as a baffle?

They are the same felt hung two ways. A raft is horizontal, flat with its face to the room. A baffle is vertical, on its edge, usually in rows. The words follow the orientation rather than a strict rulebook, so it is not worth getting stuck on which is which. Choose horizontal to keep the room's height, vertical where you have height to give and want a row of fins.

What is a ceiling cloud?

Cloud is another word for a horizontal raft, a flat panel that floats below the ceiling with open space around it. There is no fixed technical difference between a cloud and a raft.

Which type absorbs the most sound?

It depends far more on how much felt is in the room than on the shape. More coverage does more, whichever orientation you choose. The figure we publish is the 24mm board at NRC 0.65, measured baffle-mounted with both faces exposed. An interconnected structure packs the most material into one spot, but a wider field of rafts or fins can do as much across a whole ceiling.

Do acoustic ceiling panels soundproof a room?

No. They absorb sound within a room and reduce echo. They do not stop sound passing through a wall or between floors.

Which type is easiest to install?

Horizontal and interconnected. Both come as a coverage area and hang on one to four wires. Vertical is more involved, since you size the blade count, spacing and drop yourself, then choose whether to hang the blades on individual wires or a channel.